Himanta calls Miya Muslims declaring Assamese their mother tongue a ‘fraud’. Assam writers disagree
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On June 12, three literary bodies representing the Muslims of Bengali origin in Assam asked members of the community to declare their language as Assamese in the ongoing Census.
There was nothing exceptional about the statement. Since the 1950s, Muslims of Bengali origin, whose ancestors had settled in the region in the late 19th century, have been enlisting themselves as Assamese in every Census. They have done so to assimilate with the native population, as well as to blunt the hostility of the larger Assamese society towards “outsiders”.
But a day later, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma dismissed the appeal by the organisations and called it a “fraud” by the Bengali-origin Muslim community, who are also sometimes derogatorily referred to as Miya Muslims.
“What is the benefit if one doesn’t speak Assamese at home but writes Assamese as their mother tongue?” Sarma said at a press conference in Dispur.
The Assamese language, Sarma said, will survive even if only 20% of the state’s population declare it as their language.
But Assamese authors and civil society groups have sharply criticised the chief minister, arguing that the historical role of the Muslims of Bengali origin in protecting the language cannot be denied. If Assamese is spoken by only 20% of...